CALL TO ORDER:Dean Quinn called the meeting to order at
4:10 P.M. noting that as the Appeals subcommittee had no business to report and
as Academic Affairs would be presenting a report on the use of undergraduates
as teaching assistants at the next meeting, this meeting would be devoted to a
preliminary report on grade inflation from the Honors subcommittee.

MINUTES: Minutes for November 17th, 2003, were approved subject to
two grammatical clarifications.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:

HONORS.Bob
Murphy
reported that the subcommittee had reviewed data on grading at BostonCollege and surveyed several other schools
concerning their experience with grade inflation, and had distributed a
preliminary report. He continued stating that he would go over some of the data
and asked that the EPC now discuss the preliminary report and recommendations. He
also stated that a final report would be presented at a later meeting of the
EPC.

THE DATA.

a. Murphy began by noting that, since the early 1990s, regardless of how
it was calculated, all the data showed a strong upward trend in grades for undergraduate.

MEDIAN GPA BY CLASS:
Murphy stated that over the last decade the median GPA for all undergraduates went
up and that for every year the spring median GPA was higher than the fall
median GPA. He added that, by the spring of 2003, half of all seniors received
a GPA higher than 3.5 for courses taken in that semester.

Paul Davidovits
asked if this seasonal rise might result from poorer students dropping out of
course sequences. Michael Connolly commented that this might result from
students in two semester long courses usually receiving higher grades for the
second semester. Dean Quinn noted that, in the case of seniors who might be
taking only courses in their major and doing a senior thesis, we would expect
them to be doing their best work and receiving their highest grades.

AVERAGE GPA BY
CLASS: Murphy stated that from 1993 to 2003 the average GPA for all
undergraduates had gone up though more slowly than the median. He added that he
thought the median a more useful indicator than the average.

Michael Connolly
asked if there was a problem with the data for seniors in the spring semester
of 2003. Murphy responded there were problems with the data for the years 1996
and 2003 but that he would try to resolve those for the final report.

PERCENT DISTRIBUTION
OF GRADES FOR A&S AND FOR ALL UNDERGRADUATES. Pointing out that the data
presented three years, 1995, 1999, and 2003, Murphy stated that the
distribution revealed a dramtic increase in the number of “A” and “A-“ grades
given.

Ourida Mostefai
noted this corresponded to the situation at Harvard and stated that in
reviewing student records for the Dean’s Sophomore Scholars list, she
discovered that 1/3 of the current sophomores in A&S had cumulative GPAs
above 3.5. Murphy added that the final cut off for Dean’s Scholars was 3.7.

b. Murphy presented data comparing the cumulative GPA of students taking a
department’s courses to the GPA of students for the courses offered by a
department.

c. Murphy stated that the data for the rise in GPA has shadowed a marked
increase in the quality of students admitted to BC as indicated by SAT scores.

SURVEY OF OTHER SCHOOLS.

Murphy stated that the subcommittee had received 10
responses to a questionnaire concerning the issue of grade inflation sent to
the member schools of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. He
summarized the responses as follows:

All responding schools showed GPA
increases, though in varying amounts, and reported there was some concern
on their campus over the issue.

A few schools reported having formed
committees to assess the issue and listed suggested measures such as
“narrative” grading, reporting course averages alongside a student’s
grades on transcripts, and reporting information on grading patterns to
departments and individual faculty.

Several schools noted the rise in their
GPAs was accompanied by rising SAT scores.

Some schools attributed the rise to the
pressure for higher grades by students applying to professional schools.

Four schools noted that some questions
concerning expected grades were included on student course evaluations.

PRELIMINARY RECOMMENDATIONS.

a.Educate Faculty concerning these trends by

distributing
standardized data to departments and requiring departments to discuss the
data and policies at meetings

providing
each faculty member with data on the grades they have given compared to
both other sections of that course within the department and all other
courses in the department,

b.Develop tools for measuring students’ relative
performance which could be recorded on the transcripts alongside with each
course grade.

Clare O'Connor
stated she had discussed this issue with Robert Wolf, Director of the
Premedical, Predental, and Preveterinary Advising Program, who had said the
national rise in GPAs had lead medical schools to emphasize MCATs and
recommendations over GPA in making admissions decisions.

Paul Davidovits noted that the pressure for good or high
grades begins before the students reach BostonCollege. Michael Martin noted that
the trend could result from the quality of our students rising while the
expectations we made of them remained flat.

Tom McGuinness asked what
the committee thought grades were meant to indicate. Michael Martin noted that
there seemed to have been a shift from grades as relative judgments on the
quality of work to students’ personal performance. Ourida Mostefai added that
grades now often do not reflect performance at all but effort expended.

Dean Quinn asked if those possessing institutional memory
thought the change occurred in the 1980s. Michael Connolly responded that the
deans used to send data on grade spreads to faculty and chairs. Bob Murphy
stated he would try to find out why this practice was stopped.

Tom McGuinness asked if
this should be a university wide discussion rather than limited to the A&S
EPC.